Cydney Hedgpeth, a Newman high school student, is the face of Vans, a California-based clothing brand. Photo by Renata Raksha.

Sitting at a coffee shop on a recent Friday afternoon, Cydney Hedgpeth blends with the other teens huddled over laptops and sipping lattes.

She wears the summer uniform of the young and hip: acid wash shorts, army green T, gold gladiator flats, a Buddha pendant necklace. Slouching in a chair, her sandy blond hair tumbles down to her torso.

Even with minimal makeup, hers is among the prettiest faces in the crowd. Start a conversation, though, and it's not her looks that command attention.

Hedgpeth exhibits a maturity beyond her 17 years. It comes from growing up in double time, juggling typical high school responsibilities -- exams, term papers, SAT prep -- with a rising-star modeling career.

The soon-to-be senior at Isidore Newman School is the face of Vans, the California brand beloved by the surfer and skater set. Last year, the company signed Hedgpeth to a $70,000 contract for its catalog and ad campaigns. In maxi sun dresses and skinny jeans, she's appeared in ads in Teen Vogue and Nylon magazines and in life-sized posters plastered on store walls as far away as Europe, Japan and China.

Last week, the 5-foot-9½-inch, size-4 model was in Los Angeles, posing for Vans' 2009 holiday ads. After wrapping the shoot, she'll jet to New York for a three-week intensive summer writing workshop at Columbia University.

Then it's back to New Orleans for a little down time before starting her senior year.

The soon-to-be senior at Isidore Newman School is the face of Vans, the California brand beloved by the surfer and skater set. Last year, the company signed Hedgpeth to a $70,000 contract for its catalog and ad campaigns. Photo by Renata Raksha

Juggling a cross-country work schedule with school hasn't come easy. But, after several years working in film and modeling, she's finally got the bubble on balance.

The camera first found Hedgpeth when she was in the sixth grade and cast in the Disney Channel TV movie, "Stuck in the Suburbs," filmed in New Orleans. That role led to another in "Heart of the Storm," a Lifetime movie filmed locally and starring Melissa Gilbert.

Modeling came next. While evacuated to Houston after Hurricane Katrina, Hedgpeth's mother, Madelaine Feldman, submitted photos of her then 14-year-old daughter to a national modeling competition held by Delia's, a teen clothing company.

From thousands of entries, Hedgpeth took top prize. Elite Model Management, which helped picked the finalists, signed her to a three-year contract.

With her career prepping for takeoff, Hedgpeth and her family made a big decision. For her sophomore year of high school, she would move to Los Angeles, live with her sister, Lauren Barrett, pursue modeling full time, and study through a home-schooling program.

The gigs started rolling in. Hedgpeth walked the runway at Teen Vogue's Young Hollywood Party and posed in an online denim catalog for BCBG Max Azria.

Her attitude as well as her appearance was getting her work, said Sven Gruber, Hedgpeth's agent at Elite in Los Angeles. "Besides (the fact) that she's a beautiful girl, her personality and her passion to be a model and her commitment while in school caught Elite's eye."

Hedgpeth was living a dream, but it was spooling out at a rapid rate.

"I felt bombarded from all sides. I was going to Starbucks, teaching myself chemistry, then going to go-sees (modeling casting calls), then back to the coffee shop to learn Algebra," she said.

"I learned self-discipline and how to be a self-starter. But it was really hard. I realized I just couldn't toggle these three lives: teach myself, do modeling and then try to have friends.

"It was the hardest year of my life, but also the most important year of my life," she said.

Struggling alone through her studies wasn't the only problem. The industry demands perfection. Ultra-skinny and super pretty are the standard, not the exception.

"I was 10 pounds thinner than I am now," Hedgpeth said, sinking into a chair at the CC's coffee shop on Magazine Street. "It got bad. I would eat like a peach and some nuts, and I would look in the mirror and start crying.

"No one was telling me anything about my weight. It was more just the sizes (of the clothing)," she continued. "I became obsessive.

"I also met people who were ridiculous. I was in the car with this girl named Jelly, and she pulls out marijuana and starts talking about how many houses she owns. I thought, 'I don't want to be anything like this girl.'

"I finally realized that I wanted to come home," Hedgpeth said. "I'm from New Orleans. I wanted to eat. I love red beans and rice, heavy on the rice. And I missed my friends and a normal life."

Vans came calling after she'd already left L.A. The brand was looking for a certain look.

"We saw hundreds of girls, very pretty girls. But it's like a relationship, and there was just no spark there," said April Vitkus, director of Vans girls marketing department. "When I saw Cydney, there was just something behind her eyes.

"She's disarmingly beautiful with a great head of hair, but there's also something deeper there. Cydney's more than just a pretty face. She's got spirit; she's intellectual."

With Hedgpeth back in school in New Orleans, Vans shipped her some clothes, asked her to put them on and do a short video in the outfits.

"We just fell in love with her on that video," Vitkus said.

"She's not one of those trained models. Cydney's raw, unedited, and she's fun. We love that she's athletic looking and healthy."

Though the modeling is heady work, Hedgpeth knows that, even for those of super status, it's a short-lived career.

"There was only 63 seconds when I thought about delaying college" to pursue modeling, she said. "I have other ambitions and goals. I want to be a writer."

Hedgpeth seems to see through the glitz with grown-up eyes.

"It's still pretty surreal to see my face in a magazine," she said by phone from Los Angeles, where she'd been photographed all over downtown the day before. "I'm out here with family, so they keep me pretty grounded."